The Wild Atlantic! 15:26.84N 044:52.78W
Seaflute
Thu 24 Nov 2016 15:25
direction. We are well prepared for the wild Atlantic, storm sails stowed,
heavy weather training completed, all spares and provisions lashed securely.
As I look out over the ocean today, the sea is like a mill pond with barely
a ripple visible. This has been the scene for the last three days. We had
started this leg with slightly more wind than forecast and had all hoped
that when we were established on course to the West, the trade winds would
provide a solid 10-15 knots of North Westerly wind. Unfortunately this has
not transpired. The early grib files ( an overlay for the chart plotter that
shows a pattern of arrows signifying wind strength and direction) we
downloaded predicted better wind slightly further West. We invested our fuel
to motor solidly for twenty four hours to reach this wind belt. As we neared
the wind, the predictions moved it further away from us and frustratingly we
are still sat in 6 knots of wind that is barely enough to make this fat old
lady move. As a consequence our average speed over the last 48 hours has
been around 3.8 knots. I never imagined we would be crossing the Atlantic at
walking pace!
The fuel consumption conundrum has been interesting one juggling the
variables. We burn 9.25 litres an hour to motor and achieve a speed of 7.5
knots towards our destination. The more we motor the less fuel we need to
reserve for the generator as we are at sea for less days. The generator
burns 3.5 litres an hour to re-charge our batteries and make water with our
desalination plant (the longer we are at sea the more water we need). We
started out with 1050 litres of fuel and 1000 litres of water. We now have
244 litres of fuel and 500 litres of water and after 8 days at sea we are
just half way!!
Whilst we are in no danger, we may need to consider some austerity measures
(now where have we heard that before??). The engine will recharge our
batteries faster than the generator. If we run at 1000 RPM rather than the
usual 1500. We can charge our batteries and at the same time provide
propulsion at 5.5 knots in the right direction. The down side is that we
cannot run the desalinator which would mean no fresh water showers for the
crew for a few days, shock and awe I hear you cry!! To put this in
perspective, many of the smaller vessels in the rally will now be 3-400
miles behind us with no desalination plants and a water capacity of 350
litres and fuel of around the same. Fresh water showers were never an option
for them and I would guess for some poor souls this will become quite a
gruelling ordeal.
The bonus of calm seas is that it is very relaxing. Cooking becomes a
pleasure, rather than the usual feat of trying to hold six objects still
with hands elbows and feet and still produce a meal. On the food front we
continue to dine like kings with plenty of variety and a continual supply of
fresh fish from the ocean. We have been able to undertake a range of
maintenance tasks whilst underway that would otherwise prove difficult and
of course reading and sunbathing have become de rigour!
One of the great bonuses of the quiet nights, is the opportunity to study
the night sky. This is truly one of our world's greatest wonders and despite
it being over all of our heads, sadly few of us will ever experience it in
its true majesty. Whilst I would never underestimate the enormous skill of
the ancient mariners who steered their vessels purely by the stars, but
sitting below this magical vista each night, you begin to become familiar
with the great constellations and their relative bearings and It wouldn't
take long before you could consider this your roadmap for the oceans, it's
certainly not scant in detail! Joshua Slocum quotes in his infamous book
'sailing alone around the world' "I do not decry the magic of divining your
exact position through star shots, trigonometry and logarithms, but if the
sun rises over my stern, sets over my bow and the southern cross shines
brightly on my port beam at night, I know I'm making good course to the
west". I'm not sure I would subscribe to this "near enough" method of
reckoning whilst navigating the numerous coral reefs of the south pacific,
but for open ocean sailing most definitely yes.
The Ocean wildlife continues to entertain. We passed close by a pod of
whales (not sure what type but quite large) cruising in the opposite
direction a few days ago. They seemed totally un perplexed by our presence
and continued on their way. For caution we called a vessel that was
following us closely at the time to warn them to keep a good lookout.
A storm petrel decided to fly into one of our trailing fishing lines. He
protested very loudly as I hauled him into our boat. Once I had hold of him,
he remained remarkably still as Tom and I untangled the line from his wings.
I thought this was one of those lovely instances where a creature has an
understanding, a gratitude to a human for freeing it from a dangerous
predicament. I changed my mind as I was releasing him and he bit me soundly
with his razor sharp beak. He then flew around the boat for several minutes
further remonstrating with us. Despite all this, it was good to see one of
these beautiful birds up close, although I don't think the RSPB would
approve of my methods. Last night as Lindy was on watch, she was disturbed
by a noise from the saloon and for a short while assumed one of the other
crew had got up for some reason. The odd noise persisted and on
investigation she found a flying fish had flown in through the saloon window
that was open ajar and was now thrashing around on the floor by the chart
table. As you imagine Lindy would, she carried him carefully back up the
companion way and released him back to the ocean.
Well we will carry on "drifting" to St Lucia. If anyone has any special
influence with the big man, a little wind in the west Atlantic would be much
appreciated at this moment.
Please keep your messages coming they are greatly appreciated by all on
board. This is the nearest we will get to being in a space capsule and being
robbed of all outside news.
All the very best from the crew on Sea Flute
Skipper Peds